Manly Men Cook

[anahata56]

The other night, before I was so rudely interrupted (I had a car accident), I was on my way to the market to pick up a few things to make my father's soda bread for work on Thursday

Comments

[esme]

Excellent story! Sorry you were in an accident. :\

I'll have to give this recipe a whirl some time soon. Thanks for sharing it!

[anahata56]

A lot of times, we think about traditional recipes being passed along from our mothers or grandmothers...

But dads sometimes lend to our kitchen histories as well, and I know that I will never look at a loaf of soda bread without thinking of my father.

[shadowmoonsedai]

In my family, my mother rarely cooks, so all of my cooking knowledge has come primarily from my dad.

That being said, a lot of it has also come from my mother's parents. My Poppi makes a mean barbecue baby back rib. ^_^

[anahata56]

I think that one of the reasons why my dad married my mother was because it assured him of only a passing acquaintence with the stove! ;-)

But for some reason, he loves making this stuff, and takes a good bit of pride out of sharing the recipe.

[eri_chan]

I've been looking at soda bread recipes for days.... I'm making a big ol' loaf tonight to bring to my other half's family St. Patty's day party tomorrow, and I've never made it before so I'm trying to figure out which one to follow. I may just use this one - tried-and-true is always best :)

My mom used to make a great one when I was a kid (and I haven't had it since I moved out, which is what prompted me to try and make some myself) but she's the type to never keep written recipes and do everything from memory, so she can't really tell me how to make it.... :(

[anahata56]

One of the big complaints I have about a lot of the soda breads I've tasted is that they are REALLY dry and crumbly (not that that's ALL bad--the drier ones do nicely as a side to soups and stews, and are a great excuse to put about a quarter pound of butter on a slice, just to hold it together!). This ine is NOT--it has a nice crumb to it, but because it begins as a batter rather than a dough, it's much more moist than some others you might try.

And my father, the non-cook, has never made a bad batch--which, to my way of thinking, is an excellent recommendation!

[jagash]

Very handy, i will try to whip this one up with my girlfriend over the weekend. Moister soda bread would be a good thing.

[anahata56]

Hope you enjoy it!

And yes, the texture is nice, even after a couple of days, which isn't always the case with the drier loaves--you pretty much have to eat some soda breads straight from the oven or they're just hopeless.

Like my dads pancakes

[wolfdancer]

but they were sort of hit or miss and took about 10 feed to the dog ones to get the batter right. He never did quite mesure things.
But sunday moring when he made pancakes were fun.

Re: Like my dads pancakes

[anahata56]

I think that a lot of men have one recipe that they glom onto and that becomes their kitchen trademark.

I know that in this house I wouldn't even attempt to make chicken enchiladas--that's my husband's recipe, and I love him enough to not even think about trying to horn in on his copyright!

[legionpossessed]

Thanks, I'll have to tell my husband since he is the bread maker of the house.

[anahata56]

I think that when men get into making bread, they really get into it.

I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Cape Town for a month while visiting there, and the bread at breakfast was always the domain of the master of the house--he made the loaf every night and put it in the machine to bake overnight, so there was always absolutely delicious, fresh bread in the morning. And he did quite a bit of experimenting with it as well, so it was always lots of fun to see what he had done with it.

He was quite proud of his contribution--as well he should have been!

[legionpossessed]

Speaking of machines, can this recipe be made in a bread machine?

[anahata56]

Not being overly familiar with the workings of a bread machine, I can't say for sure whether you could or couldn't.

However, if your particular machine can bake batter breads as well as yeast doughs, I don't see why not. It's basically very close to other quick breads, so if your machine accommodates those, you probably could make this as well.

[sarahxiong]

wow i love the way you write

[anahata56]

Thank you!

It's nice to know that my education in the language didn't go completely to waste! ;-)